Character spirit sculpting – visit HEYWOW Cultural Creativity Co. LTD

After the liberation of China, a large number of excellent domestic cartoons appeared, such as “Little Tadpole Seeking His Mother” (1960), “Uproar in Heaven” (1961-1964), “Nezha” (1979) and “Three Monks” (1981). There was time when domestic cartoons quietly retired, and replaced totally by Disney cartoons whom dominated the Chinese screens for 30 years!

Can Chinese produce good picture quality? Can people not tell a good story? Can Chinese people manage an animation project well?

Beyond questioning, more people strive in silence and explore in solitude：

In 2006, the first landmark 3D animation in China, Thru the Mobieus Strip was released.

Pleasant Goat and Wolf, a series of 2D animated films, was released in 2009, and <Bonnie Bears>, a series of 3D animated films, was released in 2013, all were deeply loved by domestic audiences.

In 2015, the phenomenon-level original 3D animation Monkey King: Hero is Back was released and made CNY 956 million box office, which was a miracle of domestic 3D animation.

In 2016, the beautiful 2D Big Fish Peony was released to rave reviews.

After three or four years of silence, the 3D animation Nezha was released in 2019, breaking box office record of <Monkey King: Hero is Back>.

We already knew the old generation of Chinese animation giants name and the Shanghai Art Film Studio legendary stories well.  But now this group faded out, But in their period of silence and struggle, what have the new generation of animators experienced? How are they? What stories do they have to share?

We took this opportunity to interview several animation studios involved in <Nezha: the Devil Child>. This interview is about Lawrence, one of the founders of Shenzhen Heywow, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the animation industry.

co-founder：Paul(left) and Lawrence(right)

CGGE：You can say that you have witnessed the whole process of 3D animation in China since 2000 when you started to participate in the production of China’s first 3D animation film “Thru the Mobieus Strip”. How do you think the animation industry has changed in the last 20 years? What do you have to share with us?

Lawrence: There’s been a lot of changes in the last 20 years. In fact, in 2000, there was no environment for 3D animation production in China. Thru the Mobieus Strip was the first 3D animation feature film in China. Since then, CG animation production industry has gradually developed in China. We should be considered the first Chinese to make CG animated films. After experiencing the initial vision and exploration, it also experienced a long period of low time. Up to now, the achievement of Nezha should be regarded as the best situation of CG animation industry in China. In the beginning, we had a kind of self-deprecating term for practitioners, what was it? Mouse worker, right! At that time, the whole industry was brand new in China. What experience was there to tell? Therefore, technology, process, creativity and other aspects were basically copy doctrine. Which was good abroad, I copied. At that time, the animation industry was still in a relatively depressed state, and animation was a tired and fund lacking industry, mainly relied on outsourcing or government support to survive.  Only a few really relied on originality to generate income. So at that time, people were scared to discuss the topic of animations. However, the advantage was, after participating in many good projects abroad, talents have been developed and skills and experience have been well accumulated. After being silent for a long time, the whole industry began to find the way to survive in exploration, examples were Bonnie Bear, Pleasant Goat and Wolf. It wasn’t until 2015, when Monkey King: Hero is Back grossed more than $900 million, people started to pay attention to 3D animation, and 2019’s Nezha was a step up from industrial standards. So from the whole 20 years of CG animation development, I think China has evolved from the primitive society to the industrial age. It can be said that Thru the Mobieus Strip was a starting point, and now Nezha is a new starting point. We still have a lot to learn, to overcome, to grow, and we will have better works.

CGGE：Please tell us about Heywow.

Lawrence: The name comes from our little opening sequence: a kid comes in through a dark doorway with a “HEY.” Then, colorful balloons followed, the child “WOW!” .” he exclaimed. This is the name of the current HEYWOW Cultural and Creative Company. Heywow also has another implication: every screening room is a small black room, and when the screen lights up, there will be a riot of color and endless world.

HEYWOW’s logo

Heywow was registered in 2015, and was not really up and running until 2017, which has been running for two years. Although the company is very young, but the core personnel have rich experience. In addition to focusing on animation, we are also creating our own films. So we started this studio, hoping that some ideas would come out of this little dark room. The initial stage of starting a business is quite difficult, because our final positioning is to do the original, but the original needs a process, need a team. Therefore, at the beginning of the business, we began to try to take on many projects to build the team we wanted. The ultimate goal is to create more possibilities in this small dark room and deliver happiness to everyone.

CGGE：At present, Heywow is more focused on animation, you can be considered as the most experienced group of people in this respect. What motivated you to keep going until now? Has anything changed in your understanding of animation?

Lawrence: It has been almost 20 years since I started learning animation, but few of my classmates, colleagues and friends were able to stick to it. I think it’s crucial: you have to really love this business. Without this love, it is really difficult to persist up to now.

I have been watching cartoons since my childhood. It was hard for my family to understand how an adult still watched cartoons. That was the general attitude of parents at that time: cartoons are for children. In fact, at that time, we were able to see a lot of foreign family cartoon, even adult cartoon. To recollect my start in the industry, due to my interest, I made a bold attempt. I participated in the first training class of film and television animation of Shenzhen GDC in 2000 and went on a road of no return. In the training class, we had only a short class to study, but a lot to learn.  Because after one year of class, we started the production of Thru the Mobieus Strip! However, there was nothing for us to pass on and learn from. Even our teachers have not been exposed to 3D animation technology much. You can imagine the difficulties in the process. After the training, the production of the film officially began.  GDC hired several foreign well-known directors and producers of Tornado, Little Brother, A Bug’s Life.  From then onwards, we were officially in the industry and started to understand what animation was. In the following 10 years after <Thru the Mobieus Strip>, we continued to participate in various foreign outsourcing projects.  That was a period of rapid growth, both in technology, processes and ideas, all gradually matured, but always in a state of labor intense but low pay.  Many couldn’t see hope and switched jobs. With the rise of the game industry, I joined Tencent in 2009 and took charge of the animation production of games. What I dealt with most every day were various characters and diversified styles. Later, I was unable to resist the call of film, and again joined the animation film industry.

HEYWOW Studio

Animation is a happy thing, whether it is film or game. We often say that animation is the spirit of a character, or even the soul of work. Different projects will have different style requirements, so each character will have a different presentation. If you can create something in it that has a sense of accomplishment, there’s nothing like it. So if there’s one thing that has kept me going for 20 years, it’s my love for animation.

As things stand, the animation environment is slowly improving. Nezha, for example, made nearly CNY 5 billion box office, just below China’s highest-grossing domestic film ever, Wolf Warrior 2 (CNY 5.67 billion), which was previously unthinkable. Due to the influence of these factors, I think the animation practitioners in the future will have greater opportunities to make their life better, and the industry will be able to attract and retain more talents, forming a virtuous circle.

When Thru the Mobieus Strip was first worked on, more concerns were on technology, eg. how to animate to allow motion to be smooth and natural.  As experiences accumulated, you will find that designing a successful character is more important than technology.  At this stage, apart from technology and character design, we have new idea about thought and culture.  So animation is no longer duplicating, but we have to have our own presentation, and our own culture to sow.

CGGE：Are there any special requirements for the animation of Nezha? How did you handle them?

Lawrence: In terms of style, the animation of the project Nezha is actually similar to those of European and American cartoons, such as squeezing and stretching. In fact, it is very similar to the style of Disney. But from a performance point of view, it’s very Chinese. Western shows have a lot of body language and exaggerated expressions to show the characters. But for the most part, the characters in Nezha are very close to Chinese behavior, including language that only Chinese people can understand, body language that only Chinese people can understand, and so on. In fact, this is a part of Chinese culture. Therefore, these things are quite in line with what I want to do.Nezha is also a project we like to participate in, because it is all Chinese. Both from the perspective of performance and from the perspective of technology, it is quite consistent with our knowledge structure and experience. Therefore, after adapting to the animation style and meeting the technical standards, the follow-up work is quite smooth.

CGGE：In the animation teams Nezha , Heywow ranked first?

Lawrence: First of all, we are very honored to participate in this project, just at the right time. As for why Heywow was first on the list,I do not know.  Listing may not matter. I feel very happy to be able to participate in this project. I really appreciate the project team’s recognition of Heywow.

CGGE：Let’s skip production and talk about Nezha. What do you think of the movie? Also, why do you think <Nezha> made nearly $5 billion domestic box office, but didn’t make enough money overseas?

Lawrence: Let’s start with the initial situation: when we first came into contact with the project, we were amused by the one-minute demo provided. It’s not a small feat to be able to amuse an audience in just one minute. Then we concluded: first of all, production quality is really good. And, the story can entertain. So our preliminary judgment was: this film will have good results. But whether it can make CNY 5 billion box office, in fact, we did not even think about it at that time, I guess it should be beyond the expectations of all practitioners.

I think it’s the right timing, the right place which make Nezha so successful: the story is well told, the theme is clear, and it resonates with a lot of people, which is important. In addition, the narration is humorous and full of passion. So, from the theater one can feel that the atmosphere is still very good. Another reason is the schedule, a lot of good films at that period, basically did not hit the screen. In the absence of competition, the national cinema line presented such a boutique, is also a great help to the box office. In the end, Beijing Enlight Media Co Ltd (Enlight), as the distributor, has plenty of experience in this area.  It has numerous events throughout the summer, which included theme that resonate, such as The Rise of China and <The First IMAX Animated Film>”. Enlight has been quite successful in the area of propaganda.

In regards to overseas box office not being good, in fact, how to analyze this problem, cultural differences is still the possibility. For example, some Chinese things just mentioned, in foreign countries, they may not be understood. Not only Nezha, but many of the world’s best films, eg. Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” has won Oscars award, but it still did poorly at the US box office. On the contrary, why could some overseas films achieve good results in China? In addition to the technical excellence and quality of the picture, it might have a lot to do with our audiences. We have been watching Hollywood movies for a long time, and people already knew about its culture. Moreover, Hollywood movies have universal world views and themes, which have great resonance with modern people. For example, the animation COCO, why did many people cry after watching it? Although the story is about Mexico, it is actually about the bond between the ideal and the reality, the dead and human beings, and three generations of relatives. This kind of human nature and emotion has great resonance in every corner of the world. So, if you want to get good box office abroad, I think you have to know what’s needed abroad. But I think the domestic market has been strong enough. If you can make Chinese people to like the film, it is very good and not easy. If one day foreign countries have a deeper understanding and cognition of Chinese culture, maybe at that time, Chinese films can also achieve good results overseas.

CGGE：What other projects can we share besidesNezha?

Lawrence: In addition toNezha, we’re working on Deep Sea right now. This is worth looking forward as a film.  It is also the second animation film works of director Tian Xiaopeng after “Monkey King: Hero is Back”. We have a look, the volume is still quite large, and has a very good world view.  Director Tian has a lot of his own ideas to challenge and achieve in the film. I hope you can pay attention to this film then. More, we are also starting some original projects, hoping to get some of our ideas across. As for other projects, I am not going through them here and now.

CGGE：Opportunities and challenges facing the black room?

Lawrence: From the beginning of the business we have to solve the problem of survival, this process is still ongoing. In fact, after Nezha got such a good performance, it also had a great impact on and helped our team. Many people began to pay attention to us and wanted to know about us, and there were many opportunities for us to seek cooperation. Therefore, in the following words, we hope to make continuous development in team building, participate in good projects, and move forward step by step so as to eventually create our own IP, convey our own Chinese culture, and create films with commercial value and social value.

By:Raymond Neoh